There has been explosive growth in the use of the World Wide Web as a medium for providing information about products and services, and in some cases, permitting on-line ordering and purchasing. However, in many cases it remains difficult for buyers to efficiently receive and compare pricing and other information about the products and services of competing suppliers, and to order products from suppliers and track what has been ordered. In some situations, suppliers use different e-commerce outlets that make comparisons and order tracking cumbersome or difficult. In some situations, suppliers are deterred by technical and cost issues from making adequate use of e-commerce.
Thus, there is a need for an e-commerce solution that efficiently and cost effectively facilitates on-line quoting, ordering, order tracking and inventory tracking in a multi-supplier environment.